March-April. 2026 | The HEALTH
CONTENTS
03
P18 Informed vision care Optometrists play a crucial role in educating patients about vision care options, empowering them to make informed decisions.
P19 When young hips hurt In young athletes, pain may also come from muscles, tendons, the lower back, sacroiliac joint, or growth plates.
P20 Adding life to years Living longer is valuable only if those extra years are lived in good physical, mental, and social health.
17 18
P21 The hidden strain behind the flex The long head of the biceps works across both the shoulder and elbow, making it highly functional- but also more prone to wear, irritation, and injury.
P22-23 The hidden cost of vaccine hesitancy Even small declines in vaccination rates can reopen the door to diseases once under control, putting entire communities- especially the vulnerable- at risk.
08-09
The HEALTH says...
Clinics must be held accountable
REPORTS that more than four million Malaysian workers may have faked sickness and bought medical certificates( MCs) are worrying. Still, the spotlight needs to fall where the problem often originates: clinics and how they issue MCs.
Many accounts describe MCs being sold for as little as RM20-RM30. That is not just individual dishonesty; it signals systemic failures in parts of the private health sector. Some clinics appear to treat certification as a low‐risk revenue stream: busy, under‐regulated practices may prioritise throughput over careful assessment, and the financial incentive to supply quick MCs can be strong.
Where clinics accept cash payments for certificates with little or no clinical evaluation, they corrode professional standards, harm patients, and undermine employers and honest staff.
Weak oversight makes the problem worse. Inspections are infrequent, penalties are too light, and coordination among health regulators, law enforcement, and labour authorities is limited.
Without tougher supervision, bad actors face little immediate consequence for selling fraudulent MCs. That emboldens dishonest providers and enables wider misuse of sick leave.
The current paper‐based MC system compounds the issue. Physical certificates are easy to forge or alter and hard for employers to verify reliably. That creates a market for counterfeit and casually issued MCs: if a clinic will sign a form for RM20, demand will follow.
A practical response must start with clinics: Strengthen regulation and enforcement: Health authorities should prioritise inspections of clinics that issue many quick MCs. Give real punishments, including licence suspension for repeat offenders. Hold doctors to account: Medical bodies must investigate misconduct quickly and punish those who put profit before standards. Remove bad incentives: Don’ t reward speed or cash payments that skip proper checks. Keep clinical standards: Require a minimum medical assessment before issuing an MC and make clinics record it.
At the same time, technology can reduce opportunities for abuse without replacing clinical judgment. Malaysia already uses secure digital signing for prescriptions under the Poisons( Amendment) Act 2022.
A comparable digital MC system, where doctors apply certified digital signatures to attestations tied to a clinic’ s identity and an audit trail, would make it far harder for rogue clinics to supply fake certificates.
But digitalisation must be paired with enforcement: clinics that issue signed MCs irresponsibly should face investigation and sanction, not simply gain easier ways to certify absence.
Other supportive measures matter too: securing paper forms during the transition to digital, educating employers on checking certificates responsibly, and giving patients clear routes to complain about clinics that act improperly.
Fixing this problem demands action focused on clinics and the incentives that shape their behaviour, backed by stronger oversight and careful digital tools. Doing so will protect clinical standards, restore trust between employers and staff, and remove a ready source of fraudulent MCs from the system.